Man with gun arrested after creating disturbance at Maplewood Mall
Maplewood MN March 22 2021 A Florida man was charged Monday with making threats of violence for allegedly displaying a loaded gun while yelling at people in the Maplewood Mall Saturday.
As officers were struggling with the 28-year-old, a large crowd of juveniles gathered around them, according to Joe Steiner, an investigative sergeant with the Maplewood Police Department.
“There was some disorderly conduct going on with those groups while officers were trying to take the suspect into custody,” he said.
Once Brayden Jovan Young was in custody, the officers dispersed the group without incident, Steiner said.
Young, of Fort Lauderdale, was visiting friends in Minnesota when he and his girlfriend stopped by the mall about 6:30 p.m. Saturday.
According to the criminal complaint, Young’s mother told officers he’s been diagnosed with mental illness. When she spoke to Young that afternoon, she said he sounded paranoid and manic, leading her to believe he was not taking his medication.
Young’s girlfriend told police he was supposed to wait in the car while she went into the mall to use the restroom. Instead, he entered the mall and approached a group of young women.
An 18-year-old reported she backed away from Young and, when he grabbed her arm, she told him she wasn’t comfortable with him touching her due to COVID-19.
Young asked the woman, “Would you care about a pandemic if I killed you?” and she dashed away from him, the complaint said. He also allegedly reached into his waistband and grabbed something, asking, “Do y’all wanna die today?”
Young ran from security guards. When Maplewood officers arrived, he climbed onto a motorized giraffe, which was inoperable. He leaned over and a gun dropped from his waistband onto the floor, the complaint said.
Police secured the handgun, which held five rounds of ammunition. Officers used a Taser on Young, who’d been running around the mall and refusing commands to stop, according to the complaint.
“Young made multiple racist comments towards officers including telling one officer that she was not Black,” the complaint continued. “Young yelled that he couldn’t breathe and other comments about George Floyd.”
An attorney for Young wasn’t listed in the court record on Tuesday.
As for the juveniles who gathered Saturday, Steiner said crowds of unruly teens has been a recurring issue. The Maplewood Police Department is working with mall management to try to resolve the problem.
